English

Alternative forms

• (abbreviation): Gr.

Noun

Greek ‎(countable and uncountable, plural Greeks)

1. (countable) An inhabitant, resident, or a person of descent from Greece.
2. (US, countable) A member of a college fraternity or sorority, which are commonly characterised by being named after Greek letters. (See also Greek system)

   "Was Joe a Greek in college?"

3. (uncountable) Unintelligible speech or text, such as foreign speech or text, or regarding subjects the listener is not familiar with, such as mathematics or technical jargon; or statements that the listener does not understand or agree with.
   • 1821, Mary Jane Mackenzie, Geraldine, or Modes of faith and practice, page 8:

     "I don't hear one word in ten that they say," continued Mrs. Abingdon; "it's Greek to me. However, ..."

   • 1859, Kinahan Cornwallis, Two journeys to Japan, 1856-7, Volume 2, page 246:

     "It's all Greek to me," said my companion at the outset, but as the warrior continued, his fears arose within him; it might be sentence of death — what did he know what it might not be?

   • 1951 December, “Which Kind of Life Insurance Policy?”, in Changing Times - The Kiplinger Magazine, volume 5, number 12, page 28:

     ...preferred risk...family maintenance...20-pay life. That's a bare sampling of the merchandise you're asked to pick and choose from. If it sounds like Greek to you, don't worry. It sounds like Greek to most people.

4. (uncountable, slang) Anal sex.
   • 2001, "(unknown)", ASP: "Julie" of Oral-Land-Oh (on newsgroup alt.sex.prostitution)

     She is absolutely a total GFE, no limits, except no Greek. (Well...I say “no Greek” - - if she is really hot for you, and if she is really turned on in a long session, she might beg for a finger in her anus while you suck her ****, but she is just too tiny and tight for any “real meat” in the backdoor.)

Translations

Proper noun

Greek

1. The language of the Greek people, spoken in Greece and in Greek communities.
2. The writing system used in writing the Greek language.

Usage notes

In writings about the modern world, Greek is used primarily for the modern language currently spoken in Greece, and Ancient Greek will be used for older forms of the language. In the classics and other pre-modern studies, Greek is used for the old forms of the language, and if the modern language is mentioned, it will be called Modern Greek.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

Greek ‎(comparative Greeker, superlative Greekest)

1. Of or relating to Greece, the Greek people, or the Greek language.
   • 1879, Richard Jefferies, The Amateur Poacher, chapterII:

     Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. […]. Ikey the blacksmith had forged us a spearhead after a sketch from a picture of a Greek warrior; and a rake-handle served as a shaft.

2. (US) Of or pertaining to a fraternity or sorority.
3. Unintelligible, especially regarding foreign speech or text, or regarding subjects the speaker is not familiar with, such as mathematics or technical jargon.

Synonyms

• Graeco-
• Grecian
• Hellenic
• Helleno-

Translations

Derived terms

Related terms

See also

• Greek on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Wiktionary's coverage of Greek terms
• Appendix:Greek Swadesh list for a Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words in Greek

Statistics

English

Noun

greek ‎(plural greeks)

1. Alternative letter-case form of Greek ‎(“nonsense writing or talk; gibberish”).
2. Alternative letter-case form of Greek ‎(“anal sex”).

Verb

greek ‎(third-person singular simple present greeks, present participle greeking, simple past and past participle greeked)

1. (transitive, computing) To display a placeholder (instead of text), especially to optimize speed in displaying text that would be too small to read.
   • 1991, Ronnie Shushan; Don Wright, Desktop Publishing by Design, 2nd edition, Redmond, Wash.: Microsoft Press, OCLC 902239849:

     You can specify the type size below which text will be greeked in the Preferences dialog box. Designers often prefer to use greeked text in rough layouts because it helps the client focus on the design rather than on the words.

   • 2002, Deke McClelland, “The Interface”, in Real World Adobe Illustrator 10, Berkeley, Calif.: Peachpit Press, ISBN 978-0-201-77630-0, pages 46–47:

     If text gets smaller than this value, [Adobe] Illustrator shows the text blocks as gray bars, an operation called greeking. Both type size and view size figure into the equation, so that 6-point type greeks at 100-percent view size and 12-point type greeks at 50 percent. Greeking speeds the screen display because gray bars are easier to draw than individual characters.

2. (transitive, computing) To fill a template with nonsense text (particularly the Lorem ipsum), so that form can be focused on instead of content.

Derived terms

• greeking ‎(noun)

Related terms

• it's all Greek to me